Turnbull takes agility message to G20

Malcolm Turnbull has addressed international business leaders as part of the G20 meeting in Hangzhou.

Malcolm Turnbull has taken his message about economic agility to business leaders at the G20 meeting in China.

"We have to be as agile as the world in which we live," the prime minister told a congregation at his first meeting in Hangzhou on Sunday.

Mr Turnbull said both governments and businesses have to collaborate to ensure nobody is left behind amid rapid global economic change.

Mr Turnbull said leaders must restore public trust in economic reform, in open markets and open trade.

He said an increasingly complex and integrated global economy has driven the rise populism in many nations and the call for protectionism.

"That is a road we cannot afford to go down, it would be a mistake of historic proportions for the G20 to stand by whilst scare campaigns not based on fact or evidence foster protectionism or indeed isolationism," he said.